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Array Calling our lawyer since 1918
Wilderness threatened: BC's enviro hotspots
by Nicole Guy
BC is home to millions of hectares of
pristine wilderness regions, but these
natural landscapes are increasingly under
threat.
Battles are constantly fought to preserve
these wilderness areas from the
devastation of industrial development,
particularly clear-cut logging. Many
battles have been won— most recently the
preservation of the Stein Valley-but the
fight continues.
Here are some of the major wilderness
areas in need of preservation:
1. Clayoquot Sound
Despite protests and campaigns for the
watershed greater than 200 hectares until
a full inventory of all the forest values is
completed. This inventory will help
support the permanent preservation of
Clayoquot Sound.
2. Randy Stoltmann
Wilderness Area
Located 80 km northwest of Whistler,
this region is the largest group of unlogged
valleys in BC. The Sims, Clendenning,
Upper Elaho and Upper Lillooet valleys
are part of the 260,000 hectare wilderness
area. Primary control of these ancient
coastal Douglas Firs is in the hands of
MacMillan Bloedel and International
Forest Products.
preservation
of Clayoquot
Sound, it is still
a major
wilderness
concern. This
262,000 hectare
region on the west
coast of Vancouver
Island is the largest
remaining area of old
growth temperate
rainforest in North America.
In 1993, the provincial government
decided to allow clear-cut logging to
continue in two thirds of this region. The
BC government has recendy accepted the
recommendations of the Clayoquot
Scientific Panel, however, which
Droposed to preserve every untouched
The Western Canadian Wilderness
Committee has recently finished the first
half of a 30 km hiking trail through the
Stoltman Wilderness Area.
3. Greater Vancouver
Watersheds
The Greater Vancouver Watersheds,
composed of the Chaplain, Seymour and
Coquitlam basin, total approximately
585km2 in size.
The ancient temperate rainforests in this
region filter the ground water that helps
protect Vancouver water quality; however,
the Greater Vancouver Water District, who
has primary control of this land, has logged
it since 1952 in an attempt to reduce fire
hazards and maintain water quality. In fact,
the logging caused the opposite reaction,
increasing runoff and silt in the water supply.
4. Shook Hills Wilderness
This region just outside Victoria covers
approximately 9300 hectares. The Greater
Victoria Regional District owns this land,
though it is not in the catchment area of
the Victoria watershed. Some of the last
stands of old growth Douglas Fir, as well
as other rare and endangered species, are
found in this wilderness area.
5. Canadian Raincoast
Wilderness
The Canadian Raincoast Wilderness
region on the Pacific coast is made up of
three different systems. The largest of
these, the Greater Bear Wilderness
System, covers 2.3 million hectares.
The ancient temperate rainforests are
part of an important ecosystem with
great biodiversity. The major regions
in this system are Princess Royal
Island, Ellerslie Lake, Kitlope
Valley, Roscoe Inlet, Khutze and
Koeye. To the north lies the
Greater Ecstall Wilderness
System and the Greater
Khutzeymateen Wilderness
System, which cover 400,000
hectares and 250,000
hectares respectively.
Coastal temperate
rainforests surround the
river valley within
these mountainous
habitats.
6. Northern
Rockies
The Northern
Rockies are
home to a 9
million
hectare region of boreal forest, the largest
undeveloped region in Canada outside the
Territories. Although this relatively
undisturbed area is a critical habitat for
BC's major caribou, moose and elk
populations, it is now threatened with
several large-scale proposals for
development and logging.
Inside;
EnvirO-qUJZ How environ
mentally friendly are you? ...p.2
Watersheds the story
behind our brown tapwater ...p.3
Bums DOg Our garbage eats up
an acre of habitat each day ...p.3
Green CampUS Looking at environmental initiatives at UBC ...p.4
COKe The real deal on the coke
deal ...p.5 ______
Resolutions 10 easy things
we should do every day ...p.6/7
Vegetarianism 5 good
reasons to go meat free ...p.8
Hemp the legalization battle
after Hemp BC gets busted ...p.10 rahkMitnr.
'TWEEN CLASSES
Lost & Found
Found: A necklace with a large
fimo bead. Call the GSS at 822-
3203.
Ubyssey
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Wanted
A local market research firm is
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Call 736-9680.
Researcher/Writer Needed
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requires part-time
researchers/writers with proven
interest in Native issues and
intimate knowledge of Aboriginal
culture. Previous advocacy work
would also be beneficial. Fax
covering letter, resume and a
500 word sample of your wriitng
to 873-1920.
Upcoming
The BC Humanist Club
invites you to an address by
Svend Robinson MP
"Church and State
in the 90's",
Friday January 12 at 7:30pm
at the Senior's Centre,
Oak Ridge Mall, 650 West 41 st
(entrance off west side parking lot).
Donations to defray expenses are
welcome. 739-9822.
Monday, January 15
Grad Students' Conference
Keynote address by Teresa de
Lauretis (UC Santa Cruz):
"Writing as Self-Translation."
Conference admittance: $5
Students, $10 Faculty,
Reception/Buffet $5. (Pre-
registration required by January
12, 1:00 pm, at English Reading
Room, 6th floor Buchanan
Tower.) Green College, Grad
Dining Hall, 4:30pm.
Wednesday, January 17
A Label Discussion
CiTR celebrates 59 years of
UBC radio. Conversation pit,
SUB, 12:30pm.
Saturday, January 20
Accounting Seminar for
Graduating Dentists
Call Kristi at 591-6181 before
January 18. Holiday Inn
Vancouver Centre, 711 West
Broadway, 12:00-3:00pm.
The 1996 Ubyssey Envirocorruption Test
Mirror, mirror on the
WALL, who is the environmentally friendliest of them all?
Take the following quiz to find out
if your lifestyle is eco-friendly,
and where you could improve
your habits.
For each question answer
either: never (0 marks), sometimes (1 mark) or always (2
marks). Then add up your marks
and see where you fit in.
DO YOU ...
1. Avoid buying unnecessary
products?
2. Share magazine and
newspaper subscriptions
with a friend?
3. Borrow items instead of
buying them?
4. Carry a knapsack or cloth
bag when you shop and
refuse plastic or paper bags?
5. Buy used materials and
promote "second-hand"
stores?
6. Use recycled paper for your
school notes?
7. Support products made of
recycled materials?
8. Precycle by purchasing
products in reusable or
recyclable containers (such
as glass, paper and
aluminum)?
9. Avoid packaging completely
and take your own bags and
containers to purchase in
bulk?
10. If buying an overpackaged
product, shell the product
before you leave the store,
put the packaging on the
counter and make a
statement that you do not
want the packaging?
11. Avoid using styrofoam
products? (They may
contain CFCs, and even if
they don't, they are rarely
reusable and never
recyclable.)
12. Avoid plastics wherever
possible, especially if they are
not recyclable or reusable?
(Plastics make up 25 percent
of our garbage by volume.)
13. Try never to use or buy
disposables? (The short term
conveniences are not worth
the tremendous environmental destruction.)
14. Use rechargeable batteries,
refillable lights, dishes, non-
disposable razors, thermoses,
cloth diapers, etc.?
15. Support companies that are
recycling, testing their
products without animals,
not exploiting workers, etc.?
(Consider reading Shopping
for a Better World, a guide to
all major companies and
their practices.)
16. Recycle all metals, glass,
paper, etc.?
17. Take care of your belongings
so that they last longer and
do not have to be thrown
out?
18. Use the blank back sides of
paper to take notes and for
scratch work before you
recycle it?
19. Re-use envelopes and
address them with pencil that
can be erased and then reused?
20. Mend clothes and repair
things rather than replace
them?
21. Make a compost pile to
recycle food scraps and
garden materials?
22. Make double sided
photocopies to reduce paper
waste and ask others to do
the same?
23. Have a sign on your mailbox
saying "no junk mail"?
24. If junk mail still arrives,
return it to the sender?
25. Use public transportation,
carpool, bike or walk
whenever possible?
26. Turn offlights and appliances
when they are not in use? (In
North America, every 1
percent increase in lightbulb
efficiency eliminates the
need for energy from one
nuclear power plant.)
27. Take short, cool showers?
28. Flush the toilet only when
absolutely neccessary? (40
percent of household fresh
water is flushed down the
toilet.)
29. Have a reduced-flow shower
nozzle and tape?
30. When washing vegetables,
do you run some water in a
basin rather than leave the
tap running?
31. Always turn off the tap when
the water is not directly in
use?
32. Buy organic products to help
encourage farmers who do
not use pesticides?
33. When possible, buy local and
in-season produce? (Local
produce uses less resources
to transport the products to
your area and it supports
local farmers.)
34. Eat lower on the food chain?
(Moving towards a vegetarian diet is healthier and
frees up a lot of grain
resources for people to use
rather than for animal meat.)
35. Are you accepting of produce that is not aesthetically
perfect? (A large part of
chemical added to foods are
for aesthetic purposes.)
36. Write a letter to the
government once every
month regarding an issue
that concerns you?
37. Boycott products or
companies which you know
are not environmentally
responsible?
38. Re-use your Christmas and
other gift wrapping paper
from year to year?
39. Carry a reusable coffee mug?
40. Carry reusable plates and
cutlery for eating at take out
places or cafeterias (e.g. at
UBC) so you don't have to
use the paper and styrofoam
stuff?
41. Pack waste-free lunches?
42. Bring concentrated juice
from home in a reused juice
bottle instead of buying
Tetrapaks or using a new
juice bottle every day?
43. Promptly repair leaks in and
around taps and faucets?
(One leak can waste several
thousand litres of water per
year.)
44. When washing dishes, use a
partially filled sink, then rinse
them under the tap instead
of running the tap continuously?
45. Reduce water use by about
20 percent by placing two
weighted 2-litre plastic
bottles filled with water in
your toilet tank?
46. Have your water heater and
pipes insulated to obtain hot
water more quickly and
reduce wastage?
47. In winter, turn down the heat
at night and when you will
be away for the day?
48. Take advantage of local
hazardous waste depots and
collection days?
49. Wash your windows with a
mixture of 10ml vinegar and
1 litre water (instead of
Windex)?
50. Clean your sink drains with
boiling water containing
60ml baking soda and 60 ml
vinegar?
51. Clean other surfaces with
baking soda?
52. Use secondhand textbooks
instead of new ones?
53. Buy eggs in paper cartons
and never in polysyrene
foam containers?
54. Drive at moderate speeds?
(Most cars use 10 percent less
fuel when they are driven at
90km/hour rathei than
lOOkm/hr.)
55. Avoid jack-rabbit starts?
(Smooth acceleration pollutes less and saves fuel.)
56. Put The Ubyssey back in a rack
or give it to someone else
when you've finished reading it?
THE MIRROR RESPONDS...
0-40 The mirror cracks and crumbles on to your hairy toes.
From the dust, the Evil Demon of environmental damnation
rises, to take you away to the radioactive underworld, where
you will eat nothing but raw sewage until the sewers ran dry.
For all our sakes, make a concerted effort to improve your habits.
41-80 The earth rumbles. The council of wind, sun, water and
soil concede to let you live—but just barely. Try to do more of
what you're already doing.
81-112 The clouds open, an alleluia burst of sunlight shines
through and a splash of rainbow lands at your feet. You are a
leader on the road to a healthy planet. Keep it up-but don't
stop there. There's always more to be done.
theiihv5iS_V January 12'1996
KMAJJ \J\JV J volume 77 issue 28
The Ubyssey Is a founding member of Canadian University Press.
The Ubyssey is published Tuesdays and Fridays by The Ubyssey Publications
Society at the University of British Columbia. Editorial opinions expressed are
those of the newspaper and not necessarily those of the university administration
or the Alma Mater Society.
Editorial Office: Room 241K, Student Union Building,
6138 SUB Blvd., UBC V6T 1Z1
tel: (604) 822-2301 fax: (604) 822-9279
Business Office: Room 245, Student Union Building
advertising: (604) 822-1654 business office: (604) 822-6681
Business Manager: Fernie Pereira
Advertising Manager; James Rowan
Account Executive: Deserle Harrison
Canada Post Publications Sales Agreement Number 0732141
Emily McNaii stated wantingfy up to the towering mountains while Mark Brooks gasped
from the grey sludge of the city's factory. Lindsay Stephens and Jan Cook organized a trash
clean-up that would take days to plow through. In their vegetable garden Sarah Weber and
Nicole Guy dug up some Peter T.'s and carrots for the evening's meal. Since the poDution in
the air was worse than usual, Allanah New-Small, Christina Zaenkar and Cherie Jarock had to
breathe through their air purifiers. Ken Wu and Trina Hamilton were planning to free some
calves from the focal veal farm. Jaggi Singh and Jeremy Forst and attended a meeting of the
Coke Clan. Thousands of aluminum cans were taken to the recycling centre by Duncan
Cavens and Laura St Pierre on their bikes. Mark Thompson and Paula Bach were planning
to hike up the towering mountain but Scott Hayward wanted to ride his mountain bike to the
top. Sarah OTJonnell and Matt Thompson were cultivating their marijuana plants so Joe
Clark and Charlie Cho could make some clothes. Siobh in Roantree just wanted to get some
sleep after a gruelling evening fighting with the Clear the Forests Bureau Chief. Ben Koh and
Wolf Depner went gently into that good night while Jenn Kuo and Alison Cole stopped in the
woods on a snowy evening.
Special Issue Coordinators:
Alison Cole and Laura St. Pierre
Editors:
Coordinating Editor: Slobhan Roantree
Copy Editor. Sarah O'Donnell
News Editor: Matt Thompson
Culture Editor: Peter T. Chattaway
Sports Editor. Scott Hayward
Production Coordinator: Joe Clark
Photo Coordinator: Jenn Kuo
The Ubyssey
Friday, January 12, 1996 Enviro-news
Experts agree cloudy GVRD water to continue
by Alannah New-Small
Will Vancouver residents have
more brown tap water to look
forward to in 1996?
Both Derek Bonnen,
superintendent of watershed
management for the Greater
Vancouver Regional District, and
Paul Hundel, environmental
lawyer, activist and head of
Society Promoting Ecological
Concern (SPEC) agree that they
will. They disagree completely,
however, about the reasons.
Bonnen claims Vancouverites'
experience with dirty water in the
fall was a result of naturally occurring rock slides. Because parts of
the Seymour and Capilano watersheds, particularly the Capilano,
are so unstable a certain amount
of sedimentation will naturally occur during heavy rains.
Hundel, however, says decades of logging have destabilized
the entire area and contribute significantly to Vancouver's increasing water quality problems.
"Ask anyone who's lived here for
30 years," he said. "The water is
much browner than it used to be."
Although, as Bonnen points
out, neither of this fall's slides
occurred in areas of current
logging (the Capilano slide area
was logged in the 1920s, and the
old growth forest around the
Seymour slide area was never
logged), Hundel says three
decades of logging cannot help
but create a cumulative increase
in the area's soil disturbance.
No logging is currently taking
place in the Seymour, Capilano
or Coquidam watersheds. Active
logging was carried on from the
1960s until last year. In the '30s,
"Ask anyone who's lived
here for 30 years—the
water is much browner
than it used to be."
—Paul Hundel
lawyer/activist
'40s and '50s the head of the
GVRD prevented all logging,
taking a hands-off approach to
management, although there had
been logging previously.
Active logging was suspended
in 1994 so that the GVRD-which
Hundel says was under heavy
pressure from environmental
groups-could carry out an
ecological inventory of the watershed. The inventory is now complete, and a number of potential
cutblocks are now drawn up.
Bonnen insists that no further
logging will take place without
"extensive public consultation" in
a long-term management plan.
The GVRD still claims that a
certain amount of "timber
removal" is necessary to reduce
the risk of forest fires. They say
high-risk areas must be identified
and managed, although areas
with a very high risk of erosion
may be managed through fire
suppression.
Hundel dismisses this claim.
"There are 1000 year old trees in
those watersheds," he said.
"Eighteen in the area were a high
fire risk, how could they live that
long?"
Both sides have called in
scientists to confirm their points
of view, but there are conflicting
opinions on the level of risk.
Hundel argues that environmentalists should be allowed into
the watershed to assess these issues,
particularly damage resulting from
logging.
The GVRD keeps access to the
watershed very restricted to avoid
damage or infection risk.
Hundel, however, questions why
heavy logging equipment should
be allowed into this fragile
ecosystem when the public is
excluded.
Vancouver's urban wilderness "trashed" in Burns Bog
by Ken Wu
The Lower Mainland's
garbage dump sits on the
southwest corner of Greater
Vancouver's largest tract of wild
habitat.
Burns Bog, a 40 km2 area of
tea-coloured ponds, pine trees
growing on mats of sphagnum
moss and forests of hemlock,
cedar and spruce, is also the site
of a dump that spreads over an
acre of Bog each day. A federal
study revealed that 30 kilograms
of dioxins and 55 kilograms of
PCBs are dumped into the Bog
every year.
The Bog, located in the middle
of the municipality of Delta, is
entirely surrounded by highways,
factories, warehouses, residential
areas and farmland.
Although the Bog has been at
the centre of environmental
controversy for years, recent New
Democratic Party initiatives to
protect various wild areas have
created new opportunities for its
protection.
Burns Bog is the only raised
peat bog on the west coast of
North America and is home to
many spectacular and rare
natural features. It is one of the
few habitats in BC for sandhill
cranes, the province's largest
bird. As many as 10,000
waterfowl spend the winter on its
ponds and a population of 50
bald eagles feed on the waterfowl
and at the garbage dump.
Similarly, a completely
isolated population of twelve
black bears live off the extensive
blueberry patches and on the
garbage. In addition, an
estimated 100 black and white-
tailed deer reside in Burns Bog
alongside 178 other mammal and
bird species, including spotted
skunks, coyotes, beaver,
muskrats, peregrine falcons, red-
tailed hawks, snowy owls and
trumpeter swans.
Over the years, numerous
threats have loomed ominously
over Burns Bog. At present,
major threats include a proposal
to build a six-lane highway
through the Bog, the expansion
of cranberry farms for the
multinational drink company
Oceanspray, a proposed new golf
course and the expansion of the
garbage dump.
For more than a decade, the
Bums Bog Conservation Society
has laboured against such threats.
Prominent individuals, including
UBC geneticist David Suzuki and
recently British naturalist David
Belamy, have spoken for its
protection.
Radical environmentalists
from Earth First! (an organization
which holds nature to be as
important as the interests of
human beings) have blockaded
the continued dumping of
garbage into the Bog. Clearly,
there is much public concern
over the bog's fate.
Under the NDP's Protected
Areas Strategy, in which twelve
percent of the province is to be
protected in parks, numerous
tracts of natural habitat in the
Lower Mainland have been set
aside. These include Surrey
Bend, Boundary Bay, and
Douglas Island, but not Burns
Bog. The NDP has proposed to
protect 1000 of the Bog's 4000
hectares. However, the major
landowner of the Bog, Western
Delta Properties Corporation, is
asking for a sum of over 200
million dollars for their lands, far
more than the government is
willing to pay.
Environmentalists are now
calling for the expropriation of
UBYSSEY FILE PHOTO
BURNS BOG will be the next stop for whatever Penny doesn't eat.
the lands for a park, charging the
corporation with being
unreasonable. An all out effort is
needed by the public
immediately to protect all of
Burns Bog before the opportunity
passes.
To help save Burns Bog,
concerned citizens should write
to the Minister of the
Environment, Lands and Parks,
The Honourable Moe Sihota,
Legislative Bldgs., Victoria. BC.
V8V 1X4, asking him to protect
all of Burns Bog and to
expropriate lands if necessary.
The Burns Bog Conservation
Society is sponsoring a
conference on peatlands in the
George Curtis Building at UBC
from January 26-28.
RANDY STOLTMANN WILDERNESS:
Groups hope to create wilderness area north of Squamish
by Chris Ingleman
Located about 200 km north
of Squamish is a vast 260,000
hectare region which includes old
growth forest and encompasses
three pristine watersheds.
The Randy Stoltmann
Wilderness stretches from the
Upper Elaho River north to the
Upper Lillooet Valley and is
about a three hour drive from
Vancouver.
It includes some of the largest undisturbed old growth
Douglas fir and cedar stands on
the southern coast of BC, and
boasts the third-largest Douglas
fir tree in BC. It is a refuge for
many species of wildlife which
are under increasing pressure
from nearby logging operations.
The area teems with wolverines, cougars, mountain goats,
wolves and pine martens. It lies
at the most southwesterly limit of
the BC moose range and sustains
the population of grizzly bears
closest to Vancouver. The stunning scenery encompasses gigantic waterfalls, volcanoes, glacier-
capped mountains, fast flowing
cold rivers and rich forested valley bottoms.
The area has become the new
conservation hot spot in
southwestern BC. An avid group
of concerned citizens have
proposed to have the area
preserved as the Randy
Stoltmann Wilderness Area.
The proposal is named in
memory of the late Western
Canada Wilderness Committee
campaigner, who died in an avalanche in 1994. Randy Stoltmann
explored the area extensively and
hoped that it would be set aside
for future generations to enjoy.
Like so many of the remaining wilds of BC, industry already
has strong claims on the
Stoltmann. Part of the proposed
reserve overlaps the Soo Timber
Supply Area, where a reduction
of the Annual Allowable Cut has
already occurred, and local forest
workers are very concerned
about job loss.
Mining Interests have their eye
on the Upper Lillooet valley, and
have proposed building a pumice
mine on an extremely unstable
slope. MacMillan Bloedel and
two other forest companies are
currently active in the Upper
Lillooet while Interfor's Tree
Farm License #38 corners most
of the southern half of the area.
Interfor has already pushed a
logging road five km up Sims
Creek damaging the creek bed of
this Class A fish stream.
Although it has been proposed
as a park, and the BC government
has said it will consider the area
for protection, low-elevation trees
have not been granted protection
from logging and road building
while talks proceed.
Conservation groups are angered
by the provincial government's
"talk and log" approach.
Western Canada Wilderness
Committee campaigner Joe Foy
fumed when he said, "By the time
coffee is served at the dinner
meeting another hectare of the
Stoltmann Wilderness will have
been lost."
John Clarke has been
exploring the wilds of the south
coast mountains for over 30 years
and knows the beauty of the
Stoltmann Wilderness intimately.
"I'm excited by this area
because all of the traveling that
I've done has really given me an
idea of what's left in the lower
elevation inlets," he said in
reflection. "You'd expect this kind
of forest in some God-forsaken
inlet along the coast, but here it
is right in the Lower Mainland."
Volunteers have spent the last
two summers building rough
trails through the Stoltmann
Wilderness, so people can come
and see just why it is crucial this
area be preserved.
Friday, January 12,1996
The Ubyssey News
GVRD pushes UBC to clean up campus planning
by Duncan Cavens
The future of UBC's
environment is being decided,
and students need to be involved.
The University and the
Greater Vancouver Regional
District (GVRD) are developing
an Official Community Plan
(OCP) for the campus, which
will set long term objectives for
land use at UBC.
The OCP will include guidelines for housing, commercial
development, green space,
transportation and the protection
of environmentally sensitive areas.
Students may cringe at the
prospect of another long-winded,
bureaucratic justification of UBC's
profit-driven development vision,
but the OCP will be a document
with teeth. Once signed, the
university will be legally obligated
to follow the Plan's guidelines.
The impetus for this planning
process came largely as a result
of UBC's recent foray into real
estate development, Hampton
Place. This development of high-
priced market housing at the
corner of 16th and Wesbrook
Mall alarmed many students,
environmentalists and local
residents' groups concerned
about the environmental impact
of increased non-educational
development in the area.
UBC hopes to continue with
this kind of development to
generate extra revenue. The
University Board of Governors
announced last spring it wants to
reserve 30 percent of campus for
market housing (Hampton Place
represents three percent).
Pressure from government
and community groups forced
UBC to switch to a more
consultative process. Unlike
previous campus plans, which
the university has regarded as
mere recommendations, the
OCP will include concrete rules
for its implementation.
Much of the OCP will
probably deal with the South
Campus (south of 16th
Avenue), the site UBC has
proposed for more Hampton
Place-style developments.
However it will also apply to
the main campus, dealing with
issues crucial to students;
transportation issues, safety,
the availability and location of
commercial services and the
amount of green space on
campus will be impacted.
Some have suggested increasing commercial development at the centre of campus
near the Student Union Building,
which potentially could make the
campus more vibrant and active
at night and increase safety for
students. Similar proposals have
been made with respect to
student housing, and bicycle and
transit routes.
The OCP process has been
ongoing since last summer, and
several meetings and
consultations have already taken
place. Unfortunately, students
have not been actively made
aware of the process. However,
the planning consultants hired by
the GVRD want to hear from all
members of the campus
community.
Next week there will be an
OCP Open House in the SUB,
where a wide range of development choices will be presented.
The Open House will be held
Monday, January 15 from 4:00
to 8:00pm in SUB 214/216 with
a brief presentation and open
forum at 7:00pm.
DUNCAN CAVENS PHOTO
HAMPTON PLACE—rich people have moved in to replace the forest.
"There goes the neighbourhood," opines this lonely oak tree.
UBC buckles down to reduce tonnes of trash
by Wolf Depner
Every year people at UBC
generate enough waste to fill War
Memorial Gym to the rafters and
completely drown the Empire
Pool, according to the university's
1994/95 Waste Reduction
Annual Report.
Unofficial GVRD estimates
say UBC produces more waste
than any other single location in
the Lower Mainland.
In the 1994/1995 fiscal year,
UBC generated 4235 metric tons
of what experts call "solid
municipal waste." Given a 31,208
DUNCAN CAVENS PHOTO
RECYCLING BINS—lined up outside SUB. "We're not bears, please feed
the bins," they sing in five part harmony.
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campus population, that means
each member of the campus
community produced on average
135 kg of solid waste last year.
These startling figures caused
enough public concern in 1991
that the university administration
was forced to create the UBC
Waste Reduction Program. As a
result, UBC has stepped up its
commitment to waste reduction,
recycling and environmental
education in recent years.
The Program, part of the
department of plant operations,
employs five full-time staff and
runs a campus-wide paper and
cardboard recycling operation.
It also coordinates multi-material
recycling in student residences
and provides education,
information and advice on waste
reduction to the UBC
community.
UBC's Waste Reduction Coordinator John Metras says the
program has made a significant
contribution to waste reduction
on campus. The university's per
capita waste generation has
decreased from its mid-1980s
figures and has held steady over
the last five years.
The percentage of waste being
recycled and composted has also
gone up, from thirteen percent
in 1990/91 to 27 percent in 1994/
95. According to another
unofficial GVRD estimate, UBC
is the biggest recycler in the
Lower Mainland, although
Mentras says there is "huge room
for improvement."
The university hopes that by
the Year 2000, it will be able to
recycle 50 percent of all its solid
waste. To accomplish this goal,
a new recycling collection system
has been designed and approved
for implementation this
upcoming summer. By using
wheeled carts in combination
with an automatic side-loading
vehicle to collect mixed
paper,this system will increase
recycling capacity two-and-half
times, reduce operating costs by
50 percent, and significantly
improve worker safety.
The UBC community has also
experienced some economic
benefits from its Waste
Reduction Program. A number
of resource companies are now
purchasing UBC's waste and
recyclables. But according to
Metras, the " solid waste" market
can be rather volatile.
According to the department of
health, safety and environment,
the hazardous waste reduction and
recovery on campus has also
improved. Two years ago, a mere
one or two percent of all chemical
wastes were re-used or treated on
campus. That figure was up to 30
percent for 1995. The department
has also initiated a solvent
recovery program and started a
chemical exchange program.
The Department of Health,
Safety and Environment has
also begun to perform an
environmental audit on campus.
This program, initiated in
January 1995, and currendy in its
pilot phase, is examining
whether or not university
departments act within existing
environmental legislation. If
necessary they provide guidelines on how to achieve
compliance with such legislation.
Only a handful of departments
have been audited so far, but the
program will eventually look at
all UBC activities on or off the
Point Grey Campus, according to
Dorit Mason who is in charge of
the environmental audit.
"[The audits] have been
good," commented Mason.
"Nothing of great environmental
significance has been found yet
in the audits."
One of key tasks performed by
the Department of Health, Safety
and Environment is raising
environmental consciousness
within the entire UBC
community. The "Greening the
Campus" campaign is another
project aimed at getting students
involved in the environmental
decision-making process.
Initiated by the Sustainable
Development Research Institute
(SDRI) in the fall of 1994 and
funded by the UBC Teaching
and Learning Enhancement
Fund, the campaign aims to bring
together students, staff and
faculty with diverse skills and
knowledge around specific
initiatives that promote
ecological sustainability.
To date, over 100 students
from fourteen departments and
five faculties have been involved
in "Greening The Campus"
projects. Janet Land, coordinator of the Greening The
Campus campaign, said some of
the projects make excellent
suggestions. She also mentioned,
"some of them are not quite as
good as others while some of
them are quite radical."
"Environmental consciousness
has gone up," Mark Brooks,
President of the Student
Environment Centre said, while
adding, "I would say that it is still
unacceptably low."
The Ubyssey
Friday, January 12, 1996 opinion
Why the Coke Deal matters
by Jaggi Singh
CCr I 1 he junk merchant doesn't
JL sell his product to the consumer, he sells the consumer to the
product. He does not improve and
simplify his merchandise. He degrades
and simplifies his client."
William S. Burroughs
Naked Lunch, 1959
"It's just pop" seems to be the
preferred mantra of the few vocal
supporters of the recently ratified
Cold Beverage Agreement (aka
the "Coke Deal") on campus, as
if to sign a deal unprecedented
for a Canadian university is
somehow a normal occurrence.
As a group of student-activists
have tried to show since last
October, there is nothing normal
about a multimillion dollar deal-
negotiated behind closed doors
and bound by a comprehensive
confidentiality provision—which
obligates UBC to exclusively sell
the beverage products of a
billion-dollar multinational
corporation for at least the next
decade.
The Coke Deal is about much
more than some shallow right to
drink Pepsi or Canada Dry.
Substantially, it's about the
alienating and increasing
corporatization of daily life and,
as the recent actions of both the
Board of Governors and a
compliant AMS Council have
shown, the contempt with which
the students of UBC are treated
by their so-called "democratic"
institutions.
The Coke Deal is not based
upon some simple proposition
where UBC agrees only to buy
Coke and is paid-off handsomely
in return; rather, it is crucially
dependent upon projected sales of
pop over the next ten years. Of
course, those purchases are
overwhelmingly made by
students, which means that Coke,
UBC and the AMS are all taking
advantage of the fact that over
the course of any given day on
campus, students might get
thirsty and buy a drink.
Now, it might be a mundane
observation that in a
shamelessly consumer society we
are all essentially commodities
whose value is determined by
how much we can buy or be sold
for; but why should a university
and its student council so
callously take advantage of that
fact? Indeed, perhaps the most
disingenuous argument made by
Coke Deal proponents is that,
despite everything else, the deal
is good business: UBC gets
money in the millions, the AMS
gets its cut and Coke
undoubtedly increases its profits
while guaranteeing market share.
Well, where exactly does all that
money come from in this sugar-
coated equation?
Somehow the university and
AMS (certainly not Coke) have
lost sight of the fact that the
money still comes out of
students' pockets. The more
profitable the deal remains, the
more students will have to pay
through the increased prices that
arise in a monopoly situation.
The Coke Deal, which is
supposed to help solve budget
problems, really means that
students get soaked yet one more
time-this time by their own
student council in addition to the
usual suspects.
It should also be kept in mind
that in order to get their yearly
payoffs, UBC and the AMS have
to make sure that projected sales
figures are reached. This means,
in the very least, UBC and the
AMS make the campus a
congenial environment for the
sale of Coke. It is not implausible
though that the university could
actively promote the product if
its million dollar payoffs were
threatened by the potentially
slack purchasing habits of
students.
Indeed, the confidentiality
clause-which means absolutely
no details of the agreement may
be made available to students or
the public (unless Coke's
executives in Toronto agree)-is
perhaps the most blatant
example of Coke's literal
takeover of UBC. In weighing
the "competitive interests" of
Coke versus the right of students
at a public university to be
informed, both UBC and the
AMS chose Coke. In light of this,
it is certainly no exaggeration to
say that UBC has been bought
off by Coke at the expense of its
members.
Coca-Cola, as well as other
multinationals like
McDonald's, Pepsi, Marlboro,
Budweiser and Shell, epitomizes
the spread of a degraded, sterile
and wasteful global monoculture.
There is nothing inherently of
value in Coke except the vacuous image it literally spends millions of dollars per year promoting in ceaseless and pervasive
advertising. Coke's ad hacks,
better termed mind polluters,
have created such inanities as the
infamous "I'd like to teach the
world to sing" commercials, as if
there is absolutely any
connection between drinking
Coke and global peace.
In reality, Coke has directly
contributed to human rights
abuses, having been linked to the
death of twelve union organizers
in Guatemala. Has Coke ever
pulled out of a country for any
ethical or human rights
concerns? To ask the question is
to forget the fact that
corporations exist to maximize
profit and not to be bothered by
the sorts of moral qualms that
make us human.
Shockingly, the implications
the Coke Deal might have on
UBC's image did not arise in the
minds of those university
bureaucrats and AMS hacks who
decided to proceed with
negotiations last August.
In light of all the concerns
outlined above, opponents of the
Coke Deal thought that short of
outright rejection, a vigorous
debate through a referendum
was essential. Of course, the
university's Board of Governors,
following its secretive modus
operandi ever since David
Strangway's arrival, passed the
deal in an unannounced, closed-
door executive session which
excluded the Board's elected
student members.
Pro-Coke AAAS candidates
by Jaggi Singh
The following AMS election
candidates both opposed a motion
to send the Coke Deal to a referendum voter-preventing students
from deciding on the issue for
themselves in the upcoming
elecnons-anrf voted in favour of
the deal (pro-Coke and anti-referendum). The positions they are
running for are in brackets.
Craig Bavis (Director of Administration and Senator-at Large)
Mike Blackman (Coordinator of
External Affairs, Board of Governors and Senator-at-Large): The
only coundilor to officially request a secret ballot for the final
vote on the Coke Deal.
Janice Boyle (President):
Signed a petition in favour of a
referendum but hypocritically
ended up voting against one at
Council.
Iica Chui (Vice-President and Individual Faculty Senator); Made
the unfortunate but honest com
ment that *Yes, our generation is
for sate," to response to criticism
that the Coke Deal Was selling stu-
dentsout
Patrick Lum (Director of Fi»
nance and Senator-at-Large): immediately threatened to call security guards and the police
when a student refused to leave
council chambers in protest of
council's decision to meet in
closed sessions to discuss the
Coke Deal. The AMS General
Manager ended up calling
guards anyway.
Vighen Pacradouni (Board of
Governors, Senator-at-Large and
Individual Faculty Senator)
Stated that students who did not
like how their councillors voted
should not vote for them the next
time. Vighen is running for three
separate positions, which means
students have to "not vote" for
him three times.
Trevor Presley (Vice-President
and Senator-at-Large)
u»c him society
Friday to Sunday Jan. 12-14
in SUB Auditorium
8:00 Braveheart
UBC Film Society
Check for our flyers
in SUB 247.
$**afi,n
The AMS council, on the
other hand, nominally announced its meetings but also
discussed and debated the Coke
Deal privately until a student protest in October forced council to
keep its doors open. The protests
of students did not mean that
councillors would actually listen.
On two separate occasions motions for a referendum were
soundly defeated.
Moreover, at the marathon
six-hour session prior to
final approval of the deal, modest
motions to simply postpone
consideration of the deal for a
few weeks—giving some
councillors a chance to inform
themselves-were rejected a total
of three times. It was obvious the
more the Coke Deal was
debated, the more doubts and
opposition would grow.
Nonetheless, for a majority of
councillors student democracy
means having students vote once
a year and then shut up. Some
even argued that if students
didn't like the results of the vote
they could vote for someone else
in the next election, totally oblivious to the fact that the Coke
Deal's duration is at least a decade.
Despite the obstacles
institutions like Coke, UBC
and the AMS pose, the fight of
student-activists against the deal
has not ceased. Stop by the
Student Environment Center
booth at Environment Days next
week (January 15-16) for more
information. You can watch
excerpts of the film The Coca-Cola
Kid, buy illegal drinks at rates
cheaper than campus vending
machines and sign the petition
trying to force a referendum on
rescinding the Coke Deal. The
spread of an insipid Coca-Cola
civilization might be predictable,
but it doesn't have to be
inevitable at UBC.
(Anyone who wishes to get
involved against the Coke Deal can
attend the weekly meetings of the
Student Environment Centre and its
Culture Jamming Group. Call 822-
8676 or come by SUB 208.)
New UBC Campus
Bus Service
For 24-Hour Movie Listinas ca 822-3697
Effective Monday January 15th a shuttlebus service will be
initiated on a trial basis. The yellow bus will run on a 30 minute fixed
route (see map.) The service, operated by Parking and Security will
run Monday through Friday from 6PM to 2AM until April 30th.
The yellow shuttlebus will complement the existing blue Security
Bus. The Security Bus will continue to give personal transportation
service on call (822-4721).
This is a YOUR UBC joint initiative of the Personal Security Advisory
Committee, the Vice President (Student and Academic Services)
and Parking and Security Services.
Friday, January 12,1996
The Ubyssey What you can do
Zen and the Art of Bicycling
BECOME A CYCLE MANIAC: ride your
by Lindsay Stephens
Bikes, for those who ride them
everywhere, are as essential to
life as eating and breathing. For
those in the habit of regularly
placing their seats on their bicycle saddles, the idea of riding
can be a daunting one. And in a
bike
DUNCAN CAVENS PHOTO
city with giant hills and almost
constant rain, riding could be
considered lunatic fringe.
First and foremost, it is important to overcome your fears.
Riding is not all that hard, despite
the hills. If you go at your own pace
and build your stamina slowly you
Environment Pays!
Monday, Jan. 15 - Tuesday, Jan.16
Brought to you by the
Student Environment Centre.
Booths in SUE main concourse:
Bear Watch
UBC Waste Reduction
Western Canada Wilderness Committee (WC2)
Earth Save
Canadian Hemp Co.
Green Party
Sierra Club
V-Trac
Greenpeace
Student Environment Centre
Better Environmentally Sound Tranportation
Food for Life
Food and the Environment
Ad Busters/The Media Foundation
Monday, Jan 15—SUL3 Aditorium
12:30 Kerry Dawson from WC2
•Randy Stoltmann Wilderness
V.oU Brendan Anderson from Northwest
Wildlife preservation Society
•Wildlife in BC
Buy illegal drinks, watch "The Coca Cola Kid" and sign
the "Rescind the Coke Deal" petition.
can make it absolutely anywhere.
You may now be wondering,
"Why would I want to ride when
I have a perfecdy good car/bus/
rowing machine?" The answer is
that the benefits of riding cannot
be equalled by any car, bus or
rowing machine. I have a friend
who considers biking to be a zen
experience. He insists that
whenever life is a little overwhelming he just has to go out
and ride hard.
The nature of riding is such that
if you're really pushing you can
only think about one thing. My
friend says that at the end of a ride
"you've thought about one thing
long enough that you've fixed
everything else"—an experience
very similar to meditation (only
more cardiovascular).
However, if you are a person
who doesn't go for that yoga stuff
you may be pleasantly surprised
to find biking has something to
offer even the most hard core of
partiers. You can work off that
beer gut and clear your head of
that hangover all on the way
home the next morning.
All this and I haven't even
mentioned the vast benefits to the
earth (and the air you breath) that
are a direct result of using entirely
non-polluting energy sources (such
as your breakfast) and reducing
mass pollutants like cars. Vehicle
emmisions cause 65 percent of the
air pollution in Vancouver.
Of course it is important to deal
with problems like rain in an
effective way. Fenders are a must?
and since most are not long
enough and you will still end up
with a wet butt, a plastic pop bottle
cut in half and taped or screwed
on to your rear fender works
wonders. Waterproof footwear is
also a must, since it is impossible
to avoid those puddles that stretch
for several blocks.
As for the rest of your body, I
personally prefer water resistant
to rubber but you can weigh for
yourself the benefits of getting
wet from the inside out or the
outside in. If you have a chance,
go Gore-tex. Or course carrying
a change of clothes never hurts.
Since the best riding tips are
the ones you discover yourself,
I'm going to end this article with
the suggestion that you give your
two-wheeled friend a little more
attention. You may be amazed at
the countless hours of fun,
exercise, transportation and
peace of mind that it can provide.
_V
liiillittiit
Itifi/.>—Kl'SftlHli€»ll
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95C tulitilioiml from
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Mon - Fri 8 • 9 I Sat - Sun 10 * 6
2174 W. Parkin/ay • UBC • Van • BC
Apathy in ac<
there anybod
by Emily MacNair
How young and green I
was upon my arrival at the
University of British
Columbia. A dedicated
environmentalist and a self-
admitted idealist I felt sure
that even in the 1990s
universities maintained a
degree of integrity.
I was inclined to believe
that universities ought to be
on the cutting edge of
change; that if anybody
would be motivated to
examine and challenge the
status quo of our society, it
would be students.
In the hallowed halls of
UBC I have experienced
something which for an
environmentalist is more
disheartening than clear-
cutting, water pollution or
the greenhouse effect. I
have been confronted with
a reality which I refuse to
accept-pure and unadulterated apathy and a deafening silence.
It is easy to claim that
students are overworked
and have little time to
dedicate to changing the
world around us. However, I
have become horrified at the
degree of paralysis among my
fellow-students. It seems there
is so little which will move us;
so little which will inspire us
to take a stand. Perhaps we
are the quintessential,
revoltingly spoiled Canadians.
Too comfortable to recognize
what goes on around us and'
too afraid to rock the boat
Not even threats of massive
tuition hikes impress upon
students the need to take
action.
Of course there are
exceptions. The handful of
small organizations on
campus such as the Student
Environment Centre who
endeavor to bring about
change on campus and off.
Here there are a shockingly
small number of dedicated
individuals who concern
themselves with the future of
our campus, our species and
the planet. I watch these
people burn out and pull their
hair out because it is difficult
to believe that on a campus
of this size, so few people care.
After three years, I cling to
Resolutions for an e<
by Christina Zaenker
Unlike the many New Year's
resolutions we so often make but
never keep—like to cut out
chocolate or stop watching trashy
TV shows—the following
resolutions are so simple even the
most overworked, tired or
stubborn students can carry them
out. These ten environmental
resolutions are specially designed
for UBC students and are easily
incorporated into your actual
daily schedule-they don't require
a commitment to get arrested or
spike trees. Every resolution you
make and keep will have an
impact, and will help make all the
New Years to come a little more
liveable.
1. Always carry a mug.
Your mug is indispensable; you
never know when you might
need to grab a drink or have
coffee with a friend. Everybody's
got one at home-the trick is to
remember to bring it. Putting it
in your bag ahead of time will
save you the embarrassment of
forgetting it one morning and
having to walk around campus
with a styrofoam cup]
2. Bus or bike to school.
Or, if taking the car is a life-or-
five-hour-bus-ride issue, make
sure your vehicle is filled with
other passengers.
3. Avoid buying food
with excessive packaging.
Buy bulk whenever possible
when shopping for groceries. If
you frequently eat out on
campus, be aware of the amount
of garbage included with each
purchase. Better yet, bring your
own meals in reusable containers
and either take your
compostable waste (peels, cores,
etc.) home with you or take it to
the SEC Office, SUB 208, and
feed the ever-hungry worms in
the wormbox.
4. Be a responsible and
conscientious consumer.
Pay attention to what you buy,
what it is made of and who your
purchase is supporting. Buying
any kind of recycled paper is an
environmentally supportive
choice. Refusing to buy Gillette
products, like Liquid Paper,
won't change the frequency of
your mistakes, but it may send
the company a message that
consumers will not tolerate
corporations known for their
cruelty in animal testing.
5. Photocopy on recycled
and/or unbleached paper.
Look for photocopiers that
offer recycled paper. You may
have to sacrifice a few measly
minutes and wait your turn for
ones that do—the wait won't kill
you. Use this time to talk to the
employees and suggest they add
more environmentally-friendly
machines.
6. Be aware of the
issues affecting you and
your university campus.
The Ubyssey
Friday, January 12, 1996 idemia—Is
y out there?
the ideals I once held with
conviction. At one time I
imagined students at UBC
agitating for social justice, for
environmental awareness and
of course, for Justice within
their own institution. It is, after
all, our institution. Yet when
racial, gender or
environmental issues are
raised, or when a behind-
doors deal between the
university and a massive
corporation looms large-a lot
of heads hide in the sand.
Our professors are rarely
better. I hear their voices in
lecture halls and office hours;
I find the words of these men
and women of letters in
journals and books, but in the
hour when corporations are
beginning to own them, not a
peep is to be heard.
We all have jobs to look out
for, but if when we wake up
the job is no longer worth
doing-what then? If the
people within an institution
do not care to have any input
they become mere pawns.
When I sink money into this
institution, I wonder where it
goes. I frequently feel my
education is not in my
hands.
Those who fund our
education, in fact, shape it.
Forestry and commerce
students may not receive a
well-rounded and objective
education but perhaps they
simply want to slide into
the corporate world,
confident they will find
employment because they
ask no questions.
Certainly the programs
which do not involve big-
business or profitable
research are being slashed
and burned—because who
cares to fund education for
its own sake? Do any of us
want to ask whether
administrators' financial
decisions and business ties
are directly affecting what
we learn and how we learn
it? I am horrified that
students have so little
interest in education.
The ultimate goal of the
educated should be to think
critically and to ask a lot of
questions. There is no
power in silence and
apathy.
:o-friendly new year
This includes casting your vote
in the upcoming referendum.
With student support and a 'Yes'
vote, various groups and projects
will receive funding and be better
able to give their services and
knowledge back to the university.
This also includes paying
attention to the decisions being
made by the university elite, who
may or may not be in touch with
the realities of their decisions.
Unless they're slapped in the
mouth with knowledge of the real
thing, we may be left with the fizzy
aftertaste of their mistakes.
7. Take time to listen to
people.
Fellow students often try to
share their information and
research with their peers via
leaflets, posters and petitions.
Concerned citizens can only do so
much to get their message out—if
someone approaches you, stop
and give them the chance to fill
you in on their cause. If you
support them, your signature on
a petition will make a difference.
Always know what you are
signing.
8. Carry recyclables to
the appropriate recycling
station.
This means glass bottles, pop
cans, aluminum, plastic, paper,
newspapers and others. It may be
less convenient than a one-stop-
drop at a garbage bin, but it's not
as hard as you may think. Our
overflowing landfills certainly
don't need any more waste. We're
fortunate enough to have facilities
to recycle valuable materials, so
let's make use of them and throw
away our wasteful habits.
9. Make use of free
education on campus.
It's an embarrassing
disappointment when
enthusiastic, inspiring speakers
take time out to speak on campus
and the entire audience consists
of the SEC executive and
members, plus a few students
who thought there was going to
be a free movie or pizza. As with
resolution #7, make an effort to
get out and see some fascinating
and informative presentations.
10. Share your
knowledge with others.
Dare to enter into discussion
with friends, roommates and
family about environmental
issues you're concerned about.
Encourage others to make their
own resolutions and continue to
put yours into effect.
What you can do
You can contribute by composting
Composting is
one of the most
significant
environmental
contributions you
can make.
by Jeremy Forst
Why is composting so
important?
Throwing yard and kitchen
waste out with the garbage
contributes to the same global
warming that threatens to cause
drought, floods and raise ocean
levels to the point of flooding
places such as Richmond or
Delta.
In a landfill, organic waste
(namely kitchen scraps, grass
clipping, leaves and other waste
coming from plants) breaks down
anaerobically, producing
methane, which is many times
more effective as a greenhouse
gas than carbon dioxide.
Methane is the gas which gives
the "rotten egg" smell at landfills.
Although some of the methane
is collected and burned as an
energy source, it is impossible to
collect all of it, and some landfills
don't collect it at all. Throwing
your organic waste in the garbage
contributes to global warming
just as much as driving your car!
Another reason that
composting is vital is because in
a landfill it can take years for yard
and kitchen waste to break down
anaerobically. According to a
National Geographic article on
New York's Staten Island landfill,
garbage archaeologists found
identifiable kitchen scraps among
garbage that was more than 80
years old. In a composter, on the
other hand, decomposition
happens aerobically and, in
warm weather, takes three weeks.
But besides this, composting
makes a huge dent in the amount
of garbage we produce.
According to Bev Weber of the
Greater Vancouver Regional
District, 32 percent of Greater
Vancouver's garbage is yard and
kitchen waste, and 32.7 percent
is paper. By composting kitchen
scraps (excluding meat scraps,
which attract animals) and
recycled paper, you can reduce
your garbage by more than half
(being the average resident that
you are). It's easy and you'll feel
really good!
That's fine, but how does one
get started?
Many people think it is way
too expensive to buy a
composter. But in fact, most
municipalities in Greater
Vancouver sell subsidized
Consumption Fact
A North American consumes five times
more than a Mexican, ten times more than
a Pakistani, 15 times more than a Nigerian
and 30 times more than a person living in
Bangladesh.
J EREMY FORST gets serious about composting. ■ ■ ■■■_■,
composters for $25 to residents. would rather compost indoors.
At this time, the only municipalities which don't sell them
are Coquitlam and Port Moody.
In addition to the outdoor size
composters, they also sell much
According to Bev
Weber of the Greater
Vancouver Regional
District, 32 percent of
Greater Vancouver's
garbage is yard and
kitchen waste, and
32.7 percent is paper.
smaller worm composters for the
same price. They include worms,
bedding, a thorough worm
composting guide and a one hour
course on how to keep your new
wriggly friends healthy. They are
completely odourless and perfect
if you live in an apartment or
APRIL
You definitely don't have a be
a gardener to compost. The end
product of composting is a rich
black soil which gardeners call
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gardening uses, it can be spread
on your lawn, dug into the front
garden, or given to your
neighbour who will no doubt be
overjoyed to take away your
finished compost and will
probably even give you free fruit
and vegetables in return.
Composting truly is a cheap,
easy and painless way to make a
huge contribution to the health
of your home, your city, and the
whole world. It is all
interconnected. You can take the
first step right now by phoning
the Compost Hotline at 736-
2250. Composting is one of the
most effective ways to think
globally and act locally.
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Friday, January 12,1996
The Ubyssey Opinion
Factory farms exhibit a nightmarish reality
by Alison Cole chickens are also debeaked, branded without anesthetics, iron-deficient diet of gruel. The suffering? How
by Alison Cole
"Then there begins an appalling
time of battering about and screaming
and wriggling...a half-tonne [bull],
wriggling like a little puppy....I saw
these dreadful, blood-covered casting
pens where the animals were bleeding
from where they'd bashed their heads
on the floor, because they were so
terrified."
These are the disturbing words
of a slaughterhouse worker, a
person who has repeatedly
witnessed your luscious steak and
hamburgers before they end up on
your dinner plate.
Factory farms and slaughterhouses are the nightmarish reality
for animals systematically bred for
human consumption before being
reduced to slabs of flesh on
Styrofoam and shrink-wrapped to
anonymous perfection. Five billion
animals suffer on factory farms each
year before being sent to
slaughterhouses where they end their
lives in extreme agony and fear.
The next time you decide to eat
meat, please consider the foDowing
facts. Hopefully they will awaken
your conscience to the misery and
pain endured by the animal to
satisfy your carcass cravings.
Chickens
Chickens are raised purely for
breeding and laying purposes. All
male chicks (about 240 million) are
killed shortly after hatching, as they
are useless to factory production.
Most are thrown into plastic bags
where they usually suffocate;
others are ground alive to make
pet food.
The hens are kept in stacked
wire mesh cages, and because of
the stress they're subjected to often
causes them to peck each other to
death, they are painfully debeaked
with hot irons. When the hens can
no longer produce they are sent
to "processors" to be made into
soup stock or frozen foods.
"Broiler" chickens, kept in
windowless sheds, are forced to eat
as often as possible by means of
light manipulation. These
chickens are also debeaked,
making it difficult for them to eat
and drink because of the severe
sores and blisters that form in their
mouths. These chickens are killed
after nine weeks. Their trip to the
slaughter plant often results in
broken bones, as well as freezing
to death in winter and smothering
to death in summer.
"You can go to a slaughterhouse
where they're killing chickens, and the
enormity of the whole scale is really quite
appalling. These chickens being shackled
upside-down on conveyor belts, and
being mechanically eviscerated
[disemboweled], and mechanically de-
feathered. The sheer scale of the
massacre...is rather horrifying. And the
whole smell and stench of the death
pervades the place."
Pigs
The average factory farm pig may
never see daylight until the day he
or she is transported to market.
Sows are usually confined to dark,
narrow stalls with barely enough
room to stand or lie down in.
After a sow gives birth, she is
again confined to a restricting stall
in which she can only eat, drink and
keep her teats exposed to her
piglets. After the pigs are bom, their
tails are cut off, their teeth clipped,
and the males are castrated-all
without anesthetic. Shortly after,
the baby pigs are moved to a
"finishing building" where they
spend 20 weeks in darkness until
ready to be murdered.
"As the first do&n is driven into the
stunning pen, one urinates on the trot
and makes a screeching noise I hadn't
heard before. Blood and mucus fly from
his snout. The eyes close, the front legs
stiffen, and when the tongs are opened,
he falls, like a log on his side. He lies
there, back legs kicking as the stunner
turns to the next animal."
Cows
Cows are often raised in
cramped conditions and fed an
unnatural diet of high-bulk fillers,
including sawdust, to get them to
their desired weight. They are
usually castrated, dehorned and
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branded without anesthetics.
They are frequently transported
in metal trucks, where they often
become sick or injured from
crowding and extreme
temperatures, often losing up to
nine percent of their body weight.
"Once the cow was dead it was
winched right up so that its head was
about two to three feet off the floor. It
was then moved round to a man who
slit its throat. When he did this a
torrent of blood poured, splashing
everywhere, including all over us.... The
hide was removed by a man who was
standing up high on a platform, and
then the carcass moved on again to
where the whole body was split open,
and all the lungs, stomach, intestines,
etc. came flopping out. We were
horrified on a couple of occasions to
see a fairly large, well-developed calf
come out as well, as the cow had been
in a late stage of pregnancy. [We were]
told...that this was a regular
occurrence."
Calves
Veal calves endure by far the
worst treatment of all factory farm
animals. Newly born male calves
are taken from their mothers days
after birth and placed in narrow
wooden stalls where they cannot
turn or lie down in a natural
position. To prevent muscle
development and speed weight
gain, they are not permitted to
exercise and are kept in almost
complete darkness to reduce
resdessness.
In order to obtain the preferred
"white" meat, they are fed only an
iron-deficient diet of gruel. The
calves are chained in their stalls,
restricting all movement, to stop
them from licking their own urine
and feces to satisfy their craving
for iron.
By the time the veal calves are
slaughtered at sixteen weeks of age
they are often too sick to walk.
Respiratory and intestinal diseases
and chronic diarrhea are common.
One in ten die in confinement.
Is the pleasure of eating a lump
of cow worth these creatures'
suffering? How can people justify
these carnivorous actions knowing
the tortuous life their food endures
before being horrifically executed?
What it comes down to is pure
respect and compassion for the life
of others. What right do we have
to take it away only to indulge
gluttonous desires that can easily
be curbed with a little initiative and
willpower?
It's not too late to change your
ways.
MMMMM... cow meat! Scrumpt-dllll-iclous!
DAVID BOWEMA PHOTO
Five reasons to stop eating meat
wherever land is farmed
extensively. North America was
90 percent covered in trees just a
few hundred years ago. Today
3. Compassion cattle grazing is killing land at an
by Gillian Shepherd, with
credit to Animal Allies
for
1. Health
Animals reared
consumption are fed an
appalling cocktail of chemicals,
hormones, and antibiotics. The
long-term consequences on
human health of consuming
these toxic substances are not
known, but can hardly be
beneficial.
The high levels of cholesterol
and fat found in all meat and
dairy products are now accepted
by the medical profession to be
dangerous to one's health.
Cow's milk is a high-fat fluid
designed to turn a 451b calf into
a 10001b cow in 18 months.
Humans are the only species that
drink milk after they have been
weaned and the only species to
take another species' milk. Far
from being 'natural,' this cow
milk has been found to contain
significant quantities of pesticide,
antibiotics, and teat-dip
disinfectants.
2. Economic
90 percent of the plant food
fed to meat animals simply
sustains their bodily processes.
Only 10 percent finally arrives
on the plates of meat-eaters.
Catde and dairy farmers receive
enormous subsidies from the
taxpayer. It has been estimated
that a pound of beef would cost
$30 if it was not subsidized. It is
hard to imagine a more
uneconomical or wasteful way of
using the world's resources.
If most meat-eaters were to
spend a day down on the factory
farm or in the slaughterhouse,
they would become vegetarian
overnight. (See accompanying
article.)
Rabbits are experimented on
here in a UBC laboratory, to try
and find a cure for human heart
disease. It is now widely
recognized that an animal-
product-based diet heavily
contributes to atheroschlerosis.
The rabbits are made
hypertensive by surgery, then up
to one third of their blood volume
is removed, while hormone levels
and vital signs are measured.
Because rabbits are vegetarian,
they do not suffer from diet-
induced hypertensive heart
disease like us. Therefore this
model is cruel, as well as
irrelevant.
4. Ecological
Vast areas of the tropical
rainforest are being decimated so
that North Americans can eat
burgers and steaks. As a result,
countless species of wild birds,
animals, and insects have
become, or are becoming,
extinct. It has been estimated that
one person not eating meat saves
an acre of trees a year.
Similar pressures apply
alarming rate. The effluent from
factory farms and feedlots kills
rivers and streams. The average
Albertan-sized feedlot produces
the equivalent to the sewerage
output of any medium-sized city.
The average meat-eater
consumes up to 10 beef cattle, 30
pigs, 20 sheep, 1400 chickens/
turkeys and thousands of fish in
a lifetime. Multiply this by the
approximately 300 people in
North America and you can see
the extent of the problem.
5. Altruistic
"You people care more about
animals than people" is an
accusation often thrown at
vegetarians by irritated flesh-
eaters. This is simply not true. If
North Americans were to reduce
their meat consumption by only
10 percent for one year, it would
free at least 12 million tonnes of
grain for human consumption.
This is enough to feed 60 million
people. Approximately 60
million people in the third world
died from starvation last year. If
North Americans stopped eating
grain-fed beef altogether, the
grain released would be enough
to feed 600 million people.
The truth is if you wish to put
people first you could not do
better than become vegan.
8
The Ubyssey
Friday, January 12,1996 organizations
Environmental Coalition comes to UBC
by Kira Malchy
An American environmental
organization with over 2200
chapters on university, college,
and high school campuses has
come to Canada. UBC's newly-
formed chapter of the Student
Environmental Action Coalition
(SEAC) is the first Canadian
chapter to be established.
"I wanted Canadian students
to be plugged into the larger
student environmental
movement that has been growing
on campuses across North
America in the 1990s. SEAC is
the largest, best-organized student
environmental coalition that
exists," said Ken Wu, organizer
of UBC's SEAC group.
Since the SEAC was formed in
1988 by a group of students from
the University of North Carolina,
it has grown in both size and
clout. With so many groups
across the U.S., there is a diversity
of issues and approaches taken by
different SEAC groups. Those in
the East tend to focus on issues
of pollution and environmental
racism, while those in the West
often focus on wilderness and
biodiversity. SEAC groups range
from campus recyclers and
advocates of alternative
transportation, to blockaders of
logging roads and those who
cement themselves into barrels to
prevent the construction of
nuclear reactors.
Wu said the focuses of UBC's
SEAC chapter will depend on the
interests of the students involved.
"Perhaps it will be the logging
of old-growth forests in the
Randy Stoltman wilderness, the
new Coke deal signed at UBC,
the expansion of the University
onto the Endowment Lands
forest, or the need for a better
composting program at UBC.
Whatever issues are chosen, the
beauty of SEAC is that there is a
whole network of other activists
to cooperate with."
"Social events like vegetarian
poducks and trips to endangered
wilderness areas are also
important ways to keep the group
going," he added.
SEAC's large size makes it
particularly effective as an activist
network.
"Every effective movement
needs an organized vanguard
group to provide direction and
leadership... As the grassroots
environmental movement grows
in the 1990s, SEAC will likely be
the leading group."
Although polls indicate that
environmental concerns among
Bears face grizzly slaughter
by Mark Brooks
Environmentalists have long
been calling for a formal plan that
would ensure the survival of one
of earth's great creatures and a
symbol of wilderness in BC, the
grizzly bear.
In June 1995, BC's provincial
government released its
long-awaited Grizzly Bear
Conservation Strategy (GBCS)
amid high expectatations and
much anticipation from
environmental groups.
As it turns out, the
government's conservation
strategy is "devastingly weak,"
according to groups like the
Nelson-based Grizzly Project.
They claim the GBCS has been
watered-down by guide outfitters
and the forest industry lobby, and
that the conservation strategy falls
painfully short of the measures
necessary to protect BC's bears.
While the plan attempts to
address environmentalists'
concerns in some areas, it is
woefully inadequate in others.
Irwin Oostindie, the Grizzly
Project's communications
director, says the strategy's
biggest failure is its inability to
protect increasingly threatened
grizzly habitat.
"The strategy is essentially
toothless," Oostindie said. "The
NDP government is not changing
existing land processes and no
additional new land will be set
aside for Grizzly habitat."
The NDP's strategy recognizes
the threat posed by habitat
destruction, but its proposed
management areas, while
prohibiting grizzly hunting within
their boundaries, must first be
approved by the ministry of
forests and do not prohibit
clearcut logging, mining, road
building and other forms of
development detrimental to
grizzlies.
Even the killing of grizzlies for
Scientists study Canada's
great boreal rainforest
by Cheriejarock
When asked to think of major
terrestrial ecosystems on our
pianet, what do you think of?
For many of us, the desert or
tropical rainforests spring to
mind. Few people know the
largest terrestrial ecosystem on
earth is the great boreal forest.
This forest, stretching all the way
across Canada into Siberia and
Russia, covers a third of the
Canadian landscape.
The boreal forest traps much of
the carbon dioxide produced on
earth in its peat moss, soil and trees,
making it an indispensable part of
our global environment. A 1992
project called the Boreal
Ecosystem Atmosphere Study
(BOREAS) was started in an effort
to better understand the region.
The Canadian Centre for Remote
Sensing and NASA lead the
ongoing field work, which involves
80 research teams from countries
including Canada, the United
States, Britain, France and Russia.
Scientists collect data in two
study areas, one in Prince Albert
National Park in northern
Saskatchewan and another in
Thompson, Manitoba.
In a sense, the scientists
involved in BOREAS are
measuring the respiratory
systems of individual trees.
Towers 30 metres high enable
teams of researchers to collect
data about the release of water
vapour and heat into the
atmosphere. A receiving station
in Prince Albert also gathers
information from satellites. In an
effort not to disturb the park or
cut down trees, no roads were
built. As a result, these study sites
are only accessible by hiking in
the summer and skiing in the
winter.
Initiatives like BOREAS
help us better understand the
boreal forest ecosystem, which
plays an integral role in the
future of our climate and
ultimately, our home.
sport is still legal under the
GBCS, despite recent public
opinion polls showing that the
vast majority of British
Columbians are opposed to the
trophy hunting of bears in BC.
The annual BC death ritual
will continue as normal, but will
now be conducted by a provincial
lottery system that grants hunters
a limited number of licenses.
Anyone who qualifies can
apply for a hunting license, and
some conservationists have
obtained these permits to
prevent them from being used
by hunters.
Oostindie says grizzly hunters
comprise less than .01 percent of
BC's population.
The Grizzly Project estimates
700 grizzly bears are killed-both
legally and illegally-by humans
each year. Although the total
grizzly population of BC is
unknown, some wildlife
biologists estimate there are as
few as 3000 grizzlies in BC.
Government officials and hunting
lobbyists claim the number is as
high as 13,000.
Oostindie says it's outrageous
that up to 20 percent of the
grizzly bear population is
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the general public are lower than
they were in 1990, Wu believes
that the grassroots environmental
movement, especially among the
young, has been steadily growing.
"The large mainstream
environmental groups have
decreased in membership since
1990-there's no question about
that. But at the same time there
has been a steady growth in the
grassroots and radical
environmental movements in
which all individuals participate
in organizing around issues—as
opposed to simply paying a
membership fee and sitting back
and letting paid campaigners do
the work" said Wu.
Anyone familiar with the
general apathetic student
population of UBC may find it
hard to believe that campus
environmentalism is on the
upswing. But Wu points out that
"Many social scientists have
noted that periods of
conservatism and radicalism
seem to come in roughly 30 year
cycles in the twentieth century in
North America... There's no
question that environmental and
social justice movements in the
1990s are far larger than those in
the '80s. The peak, I think, has
yet to come. And when it does,
SEAC will be there."
Anyone interested in joining
the Student Environmental
Action Coalition can call or signup at the Student Environment
Centre in SUB 208 at 822-8676.
slaughtered in BC each year. The
Grizzly Project is demanding a
moratorium on hunting until the
provincial government's newly-
formed scientific panel makes a
recommendation on the
sustainability of hunting the
grizzly populations.
Grizzly poachers will be more
severly dealt with under the new
strategy, but it remains to be seen
whether the courts will actually
punish violators with the
maximum allowable fines and
corresponding jail terms.
According to Oostindie, current
penalties for poachers are a mere
"cost of doing business and not a
significant deterent."
Grizzlies once numbered in
the hundreds of thousands in
North America and spanned
from Mexico to Alaska. Now,
less than 1000 remain in the
United States and only a few
thousand exist in BC. If the
Great Bears are to survive in
British Columbia, Oostindie
says, it is essential that the
general public become
increasingly involved in the
process of protecting grizzlies.
Those wanting to help out or
obtain more information can
contact the Grizzly Project at
(604) 355-2327. Write the
premier, Environment Minister
Moe Sihota, or your local MLA.
UBC ROADMAP TO COMPUTING
An Introduction to Networked Computing Facilities
FREE Lectures and Hands-On Tutorials
A FREE lecture and tutorial series has been created to help familiarize
faculty, staff and students with the computing facilities at UBC. A
companion document to the lecture series, entitled UBC Roadmap to
Computing, is for sale at the UBC Bookstore. All lectures will take
place in the Instructional Resource Center (in the same building as the
Woodward library) in the rooms noted below. For more information
about the lecture series, please call 822-0557, or send e-mail to
roadmap @ c s. ubc. ca.
Introduction to Electronic Mail: January 15, 5:00 - 6:00, Room 6
Using Netinfo and Interchange: January 16, 1:30 - 2:30, Room 2
Introduction to UBCLIB: Jan 17, 5:00 - 6:00, Room 6
Introduction to the UNIX Operating System: January 18, 5:00 - 6:00, Room 6
Introduction to the C Programming Environment: January 19, 5:00 - 6:00, Room 6
The World Wide Web and Usenet News: January 22, 5:00 - 6:00, Room 6
Introduction to UNIX File Editors: January 23, 1:30 - 2:30, Room 2
Introduction to LaTeX: January 24, 5:00 - 6:00, Room 6
Introduction to X Windows: January 25, 5:00 - 6:00, Room 6
We are also offering FREE hands-on tutorials: Introduction to UNIX,
and Introduction to C programming. Each tutorial is 2 hours in length,
and you will work on an X Windows (graphical) terminal running
UNIX. As space is limited, please phone 822-0557, or send e-mail to
roadmap®cs.ubc.ca , in order to reserve a space.
This program was made possible through the support of The Teaching and
Learning Enhancement Fund and The Department of Computer Science.
Friday, January 12,1996
The Ubyssey News
MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION:
Pot bust turns protesters into martyrs
byl^ffl SI land J- Clark
"The relegalization [of pot] is
not afar off day."
Marc Emery has this sign on his
wall at Hemp BC, the office raided
by Vancouver City Police on
Thursday, January 4. It took a
semi and 25 police officers to clear
out his office of $ 140,000 worth of
marijuana seeds and equipment He
and several of his employees have
been charged with trafficking narcotics, sale of paraphenalia and
several other related charges.
They face life imprisonment and
fines of up to $120,000. Emery
claims, however, that his business
will continue. He and his fellow
activists need the money for their
crusade against Bill C-7.
Bill C-7 is the controversial
new drug legislation drafted by
the federal government. Despite
recent publicity, this bill does not
decriminalize pot. People found
in possession of less than 30
grams of marijuana will have a
criminal record and can be sentenced up to six months in jail
and $ 1000 in fines. Bill C-7 specifies that photos of offenders will
not be given to US Customs, so
those with possession records
may now cross the US border
unhindered. Pot activists are hoping to stop the bill in the Senate.
Emery's business, Hemp BC,
provides the financial backing
and focus for the magazine
Cannabis Canadawhich promotes
the campaign against Bill C-7.
The office is a resource for the
organization of smoke-ins, hemp
workshops and the expansion of
the hemp and pot trade in BC.
Sacred Herb, in Victoria,
which has received financial assistance from Emery, stages a
Smoke-in at Bastion Square in
Victoria at 4:20 every Sunday.
The owner, Ian Hunter, plans to
join Emery in his fight against
marijuana laws by introducing
Anointing Oil at his store, a prod-
uct which contains small
amounts of THC. On Sunday,
January 7, approximately 100
people gathered and smoked up
as they have been doing for
weeks. The police were conspicuously absent.
Emery believes his case represents much more than a simple criminal case.
"They are worried...that
Vancouver will be seen as a
place where you can come
and grow pot, export pot,
cultivate pot without any
repercussions."
Emery's case has received
considerable media attention.
The legalization movement is
grateful for the publicity, and
Emery will be appearing at various demonstrations against Bill
C-7. On February 3 at 3:00 pm,
there will be a massive rally at
city hall where pot will be
smoked openly, in defiance of
the restrictive measures outlined
in Bill C-7.
DUNCAN CAVENS PHOTO
MARK EMERY counts his receipts at the end of the day as many other small businesses do. However, Emery's
business aims to make a point in addition to making a profit.
EASTERN EUROPE:
Fall of iron curtain reveals an environmental travesty
by Wolf Depner
A recent issue of The Economist
featured a movie-poster style
cover that spoofed the apparent
revival of communism throughout Eastern Europe and the
former Soviet Union as a sequel
to a bad horror movie.
Whether the strong showings
by communist parties in recent
elections throughout Eastern
Europe and former Soviet Union
mark a return of European com
munism remains to be seen. But
as Eastern Europe and the former
Soviet Union struggle to find their
bearings in today's supposed
"New World Order," they will be
haunted by the ecological sins of
their common communist past.
The former communist states'
mandate of industrialization at
any cost has left vast stretches of
Eastern Europe and former Soviet Union in ecological ruin.
Acid lakes in the Czech Repub-
Toward 2.000
"Haste Reduction Progress at U3C
4000
3500
3000
g 2500
| 2000
1500-
1000-
500
n-
| Disposed U Recycled
-
UBC
Tel
1990/91 1991/92 1992/93 1993/94 1994/95 1995/96 2000/01
Projected (Goal)
! Waste Reduction Program
: 822-3827 * recycle@unix9.ubc.cd
lie and the disappearing Aral Sea
are but a few stark reminders of
the indifference displayed by
communist governments toward
the natural environment-and
ultimately their public's health.
Bitterfeld, an industrial town
in the former East Germany, is
another example of this indifference. Located in the south-eastern province of Saxon-Anhalt,
Bitterfeld was as dirty as any
other industrial town its size in
Germany prior to World War II,
but things turned for the worse
after the war's end.
Unlike its western counterpart,
the slowly forming East German
government did not invest in the
newest technology to replace
devasted or dismantied industrial
facilities. Rather, out-dated spare
parts were used as replacements;
some parts used in Bitterfeld
plant dated as far back as the turn
of the century.
Despite the out-dated technology, Bitterfeld's chemical plant
operated at full-throttle production of over 4000 different products, pumping a wide range of
untreated toxins into the atmosphere as a result of its reliance
on brown coal—an inexpensive
but inefficient and ecologically
harmful energy source.
The plant also contributed to
water and ground pollution, as
chemical toxins were either released untreated into local water
systems or simply used to fill the
exhausted open-air brown-coal
mining pits which mark the surrounding landscape.
The consequences of the
mismanagement have been frightful, as workers in the area have
suffered a disproportionately high
number of skin and respiratory
ailments including severe chronic
bronchitis.
Only 39 percent of
Russians questioned
by a Gallup poll
in 1993 said they
would pay higher
prices to protect the
environment.
Ecological mismanagement in
the former Eastern bloc has also
impacted areas in the West; the
Black Forest region of southern
Germany and the Lappland area
in northern Finland come to
mind. In the early eighties, vast
stretches of forest in southern
Germany were devastated by air
pollution swept across the
former German-Czechoslova-
kian border. Once in contact
with the atmosphere's moisture,
the pollution fell as acid raid
causing what Germans call
Wdldsterben (Dying Forests).
The people of Lappland suffered an even worse fate. Fallout from the Chernobyl nuclear
reactor meltdown in 1986 blew
direcdy over Lappland, contaminating soil and water. It ruined
grazing lands for the region's vast
herds of reindeer, forcing
Lappians to slaughter these
animals by the thousands. The
Chernobyl accident, caused by
inadequate safety measures and
an incompetent supervising staff,
essentially robbed the Lappians
of their economic livelihood and
radically altered their life-style.
Western observers agree the
short-term prospects for ecological recovery throughout Eastern
Europe and the former Soviet
Union are not bright. Ironically,
there have been significant improvements recently to air and
water quality, as the most inefficient factories and plants have
been closed or forced to cut production. But those improvements
have come at high economic
costs, further adding to the economic and social turmoil
wrought by the collapse of communism and the painful transition to a market-style economy.
Not surprisingly, economic issues have taken precedence over
environmental concerns for most
of the former Communist bloc-
an understandable but unfortunate attitude. Only 39 percent of
Russians questioned by a Gallup
poll in 1993 said they would pay
higher prices to protect the environment, a response that ranked
Russia third-lowest out of 24
countries surveyed.
The former Eastern bloc further lacks the financial and technological means necessary to
address its deep-seeded ecological problems. The current tensions between Russia and the
other ex-communist states over
security and language issues have
also hindered co-operation on
environmental matters.
10
The Ubyssey
Friday, January 12,1996 Buyers beware of eco-advertising
by Trina Hamilton
While many advertising
campaigns still adhere to the old
"sex sells" premise, eco-labelling
is fast emerging as the gimmick
of choice.
Critic Stephen Corry observed
that everything from "dog food
to petrol, hair conditioner to
nuclear power" is being
promoted as environmentally
friendly, but "in most cases the
only thing that really is green...is
the colour of the dollar profits."
Increasing numbers of
environmentally and socially
conscious consumers have given
rise to a whole new generation of
marketing campaigns, ones
which are just as deceptive and
inappropriate as using beautiful
women to sell beer and cars.
These campaigns deal a double
blow to well meaning consumers,
who not only pay more for
products bearing environmentally friendly logos, but are
also misled into purchasing
products that are not as "friendly"
as they are hyped to be.
We need not look any further
than our own backyard to see the
complications that arise when
trying to sort through the eco-
conscious declarations. Forest
products like lumber and paper
are being slapped with eco-labels
to quell public outcry and satisfy
conscientious consumers. The
forest companies realize they
need to polish their images, but
we must question whether these
new eco-labels are really
indicative of more sensitive
harvesting methods, or simply
deceptive advertising ploys.
UBC Food Services
trashes the campus
by Sarah Weber
Have you ever been peeved
when, after diligently carrying
your reusable coffee mug around
with you, you arrive at the
Trekker's milk bar only to find
disposable milk and cream
containers?
Why is it some food outlets on
campus have reusable milk
dispensers while others continue
to fill huge garbage bags with the
disposable stuff each day? It
seems like such a simple thing to
change. Am I missing something
here? Other food outlets at UBC
that need to immediately change
from disposable cream and sugar
containers to reusable dispensers
are the Arts 200 Lounge, Roots...
For now, students and faculty
can pressure
UBC Food Services by either
boycotting the
offending cafes
or by not using
the disposables.
Another item
of concern in
the UBC Food
Group world is
the excessive
use of paper
and styrofoam
plates, bowls and take-out
containers and plastic cutlery.
Would it be possible for those of
us who eat in the cafeterias to
adopt the habit of bringing our
own plates, bowls and cutlery on
a regular basis?
Maybe this habit could
become just as trendy as carrying
a mug. At the same time, pressure
needs to be placed on Food
Services to use more reusuable
dinnerware.
Regular Pie R Squared pizza
eaters, for example, should bring
their own plate or not use one at
all, to cut down on all the paper
plate garbage. UBC's main
problem with switching to
reusable plates is probably the
high rate of plate theft.
The Pendulum, a fine example
of a food outlet that uses glass
plates and real cutlery, loses an
incredible amount of money each
year when these items are stolen.
Despite the theft problem, we
should still encourage the campus
food services to change to
reusable dishes. The cost to us is
more than worth the cost to the
environment.
As for all you rotten plate
stealers out there—get a brain or
may the wrath of the garbage
gods be upon you!
My third complaint about
campus food services is the
amount of
cafeteria food
thrown out at
Totem Park
and Place
Vanier at the
end of the day.
Huge vats of
soup, stew and
pasta are
thrown out
every night,
when this food
could be going
to a food bank, and given to
people who really need it.
Investigation into this issue
revealed UBC cannot give to the
food bank for insurance reasons.
If someone eats UBC food from
the food bank and gets sick from
the food, UBC could end up with
a huge lawsuit. This danger may
be present, but there must be
ways to work around it.
The Bread Garden, for
instance, has food bank trucks
pick up leftovers every night.
They seem to have found a way
of working out the legal kinks.
Why can't UBC do the same?
One of the major problems
with this onslaught of eco-
labeling is regulation, and
consumers must be aware of the
loopholes that accompany such
claims. For example, it is very
difficult to differentiate logs and
determine their sources once they
have been stockpiled in a yard.
It is therefore possible to combine
logs coming from unregulated
(clear-cut) sites with logs
harvested under stricter
regulations, and to stick eco-logos
on all the resulting products.
Although BC has a new
forest practices code that limits
clear-cut sizes and imposes
some restrictions on private
land logging, companies are
now exploiting timber on
unregulated private lands in
Alberta and the Yukon. With an
estimated 2 million cubic
metres of timber per year
imported from private lands in
Alberta alone, this is a
significant concern.
The influx of trendy
rainforest products must also be
treated with caution, despite
their environmental pretensions.
As Corry maintains in his
critique of the rainforest
harvest, "most of the products
sold under the 'rainforest' label
are nothing to do with
rainforests."
Citing fellow critic Mac
Margolis, Corry maintains that
"the majority of these products
are not rainforest products at
all... but husbanded from land
where forests have been
removed." The "Rainforest
Crunch" candy bar, for
example, contains "Brazil nuts
from the Brazilian tropical
forest [but] many other
ingredients which are nothing
to do with the rainforests".
People who believe that they
are saving a piece of the
rainforest from the nasty jaws
of the feller buncher by buying
these products have been sadly
misled.
According to Corry, when
demand for a particular forest
plant or product increases in
the industrialized world,
overcultivation and extinction
destroy the balance that has
historically been maintained
between subsistence use and
natural regeneration.
It is a "buyer beware" market
in all respects, and is becoming
increasingly difficult to elicit the
truth from the dizzying array of
attractive eco-logos and catchy
slogans being thrown at us.
For every dollar spent on disposables, the taxpayer spends
eight cents more to dispose of them.
This doesn't account for the environmental costs,
which are not yet calculated.
/f
The average North American car
produces its own weight or more,
about 2 tons, in carbon every year.
OPEN HOUSE/
PUBLIC FORUM
Official Community Plan
for UBC
The Greater Vancouver Regional District invites you
to its 2nd Open House to discuss and provide input on
the preparation of an Official Community Plan (OCP) for
the part of Electoral Area 'A' that includes the University of
British Columbia and two foreshore lots which are part of
Pacific Spirit Regional Park.
The open house will present information on goals and
alternative planning options for the OCP area and provide
an opportunity for public comment on these options.
Please drop by for informal discussions and/or the
public forum. We'd like to hear your views and ideas.
Monday, January 1 5th
4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
(Brief Presentation & Open Forum at 7:00 p.m.)
Student Union Building (SUB)
Room 214/216
6138 SUB Boulevard
UBC Campus
The Student Union Building is located between Gates 1
and 2 on the UBC campus beside the Aquatic Centre. It is
near the main bus loop and parking is available in the
North Parkade.
For further information, please call the information line
at 878-8848.
^gj^T^Grea ter
"\
MM Re
mwDist\
Vancouver
Regional
District
Creating Our Future: Steps To A More Livable Region
GVRD Website: http:Www.gvrd.bc.ca
Friday, January 12,1996
The Ubyssey
11 opinion
a
The flames of hell are the flames of Shell
n
byjaggi SinSh
This special environment issue
of The Ubyssey is humbly
dedicated to the memory of Ken
Saro-Wiwa and the eight other
environmental and human-rights
activists hanged by the Nigerian
government of General Sani
Abacha on November 10, 1995.
Saro-Wiwa, winner of the 1995
Goldman Environmental Prize
for Africa, was a founder and
leader of the Movement for the
Survival of the Ogoni People
(MOSOP), an activist
organization he described as a
movement for "social justice and
environmental protection."
The Ogoni homeland is the oil-
rich Niger delta region in the
Rivers State of Nigeria, a fact that
author William Boyd shrewdly
describes as "the Ogoni's great
The following activists
were hanged by the
Nigerian government on
November 10,1995:
Baribor Bera
Saturday Dobee
Nordu Eawo
Daniel Gbokoo
Dr. Barinem Kiobel
John Kpuinen
Paul Levura
Felix Nuate
Ken Saro-Wiwa
misfortune." Since the 1950s,
Royal Dutch Shell and other
multinationals have extracted oil
while ravaging the ancestral
home of the Ogoni. In Boyd's
words, "What was once a placid
rural community of prosperous
farmers and fishermen is now an
ecological wasteland reeking of
sulfur, its creeks and water holes
poisoned by indiscriminate oil
spillage and ghoulishly lit at night
by the orange flames of gas
flares."
No less a source than the Wall
Street Journal has described
Ogoniland as a "ravaged
environment." Shell "has
extracted some $30 billion" since
oil was first struck in 1958. "Yet
even by Africa's harsh yardstick,
the Ogoni remain desperately
poor."
The plight of the Ogoni
explicitly exposes the true logic
of the much lauded global
economy-a system that ensures
considerable profit for Shell and
the corrupt rulers of Nigeria,
satisfies the West's wasteful thirst
for oil and, in the end, devastates
the culture of an entire people.
The Ogonis are just one
example of a long list of rich,
viable and satisfying cultures
whose time-honoured existences
are rendered incompatible with
profit-driven international free
markets-Tibet, East Timor, the
Mayans of Mexico and
Guatemala and the diverse Indian
nations of British Columbia are
just a few examples.
Under Saro-Wiwa, who in
addition to his activist work was a
journalist and writer, MOSOP
organized a forceful and nonviolent challenge to the brutal
domination of Shell and their
corrupt Nigerian sponsors. In
January 1993, the Year of
Indigenous Peoples, 300,000
people attended a rally in
opposition to Shell in Ogoniland.
The size of the rally is astounding
when one considers that the Ogoni
themselves number some 500,000.
Since the rally, which resulted
in Shell temporarily suspending its
operations in Ogoniland, there has
been a brutal military backlash
against the Ogoni, with 1800
Ogonis killed. The New
Internationalist also reports that
"around 700 Ogoni have been
extrajudicially executed in recent
years."
Saro-Wiwa is just one recent
victim of multinationals and the
governments-"democratic" or
not—which allow them a free
reign. Indeed, Saro-Wiwa blamed
both the Nigerian government
and Shell for the plight of the
Ogoni people during his
kangaroo-court military trail in
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Port Harcourt—a trial based on
trumped-up charges widely
acknowledged to be false.
"I and my colleagues are not the
only ones on trial. Shell is here on
trial and it is as well that it is
represented by counsel said to be
holding a watching brief. The
Company has, indeed, ducked this
particular trial, but its day will
surely come and the lessons learnt
here may prove useful to it for
there is no doubt in my mind that
the ecological war that the
Company has waged in the Delta
will be called to question sooner
than later and the crimes of that
war be duly punished. The crime
of the Company's dirty wars
against the Ogoni people will also
be punished."
Ken Saro-Wiwa made those
remarks on October 31,1995. On
November 10, he and eight others
were dead, executed by hanging.
Mere days later, Shell publicly
announced a four billion dollar
natural-gas project in Ogoniland.
The SECs Top 10 Wish
List for UBC in 1996
(not necessarily in order of importance)
10. All paper used by university employees contain a minimum
recycled content, and all unbleached and recycled paper in
photocopiers.
9. Composting in all UBC residences.
8. A ban on all animal testing and experiments on campus.
7. Better bike access to UBC, especially on University Blvd.,
and more bike rack and lockers on campus.
6. The sudden revelation among all UBC students that
McDonald's is gross.
5. Better vegetarian and vegan options in the food outiets on
campus—heck, how about a vegetarian restaurant where
McDonald's was?
4. Better multi-material recycling on campus—a recycling depot
for every garbage can.
3. A ban (or at least moratorium) on all logging and
development in our beautiful endowment lands which are ours
(and all the little animals and birdies) to enjoy.
2. Inclusion of the student body in proper public process about
the future and development of the campus (no more secrets big
guys!). Students have the right to know!
1. Increased concern and participation on the part of all students
in the environmental issues on and off campus. END THE
APATHY-JOIN THE SEC!!!
12
The Ubyssey
Friday, January 12,1996

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